Learning React.js
I have decided to improve my coding skills and catch up with some modern trends and tackle one of the most popular javascript frameworks, React. Up to now my front-end coding has been HTML + Jquery which ages me by decades compared to the modern day.
It's been a long time since I learned a new programming langue. I messed around a bit with Python recently but, to be honest, it felt very meh to me. Nothing revolutionary. To be clear, I recognize it as a great language and am not trashing it but I found no real hook for me.
So, in my effort to learn and adopt react as my front-end coding of choice, I have this rough development process in mind:
- Tutorial project - Done! This was a very simple task manager tool that showed the basics.
- A D&D HUD - This would be a tool I could use for managing combat in D&D as well as something to provide a nice front-end view for players to know who's up in the initiative, and out of combat, an easy way for me to show then stuff and convey bits of info about the world. We'll see how complicated it gets.
- Fixture Picker - This was the project that actually caused me to jump into learning React. The way I want to take the tool really leans heavy on Javascript to allow people to personalize stuff. So I'll be using React as part of a full rewrite, making it the V4 of the Fixture Picker.
- Glowbug - While I'm not blogging as much as I want to, I think this would be an excellent project to learn React and rebuild my admin functionality in it. The frontend will likely not change for readers, we'll see.
- Pick'em - This is a further off project. I just did the major rewrite of my Pick'em site for this past season. I don't intend to do this in the short term, but it is a very likely development in the future. Probably 12-18 months down the line.
I am sure other projects will pop up, given time, but this is my road map of projects which I'll work on to develop my react.js chops. And of course, I'll keep this blog semi-updated with my progress.